A Vast Public Park!

Taurus Sun and Moon are meeting in a ‘vast public park’, according to their Sabian Symbol! There they will celebrate the shared joys of May, the pleasures of Taurus energy, earthy, sensual, imbued with the beauty and love of Venus, ‘ruler’ of this sign. Taurus is fixed, marks the fire festival of Beltane, and keeps an ancient reverence for the feminine, celebrated all over the ancient world 5,000 years ago, during the ‘Age of Taurus.’ This was a period of huge public processions and gatherings, when tribes met in peace during the season of Beltane to find love and comfort in each other’s presence.

photo: Sarah Fuhro

The constellation Taurus marked the two halves of the year for many ancient people. Taurus contains the Pleiades and the Hyades, two important and highly visible star clusters. At Beltane the Pleiades rise at dawn. At Samhain (late October), they rise at sun set. It’s hard for us to see these great wheels turn in the sky from season to season, but when we do they enrich our understanding of the meaning of change in our lives. Astrology, which came from ancient observation is one way to enjoy and interact with the turn of the cosmic wheel, and to remember that nothing stays the same, but is always in process of transformation.

Sun and Moon feel the action of Mars, Pluto, and Black Moon Lilith, from their position in another Earth sign, Capricorn. Mars and Pluto make demands upon the luminaries in their Taurus embrace to manifest their love, because Capricorn demands material evidence. We may also feel that strong energetic push to make something visible during this season of Venus, whether a new child or piece of art. Black Moon Lilith is always a reminder of whatever we might choose to forget or ignore. Pluto is also the revealer of truth as we see week after week during this time of revealed sexual secrets.

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

But the planet most energized at the new Moon is Uranus. Always on the move, electric, rebellious, Uranus will move into the sign of Taurus later this day. This might have a huge impact on earth energy since Taurus is very associated with the element of earth and there is the extra impact of a new Moon cycle. On the day Uranus went into the sign of Aries in 2011, Fukushima was struck by a huge tsunami, and nuclear plant melt down. But Taurus is a sign of love of the earth. What if the entry of Uranus into Taurus on May 15, hours after the new Moon, becomes a moment of intense victory for the earth, a joyous appreciation shared by enough people to turn our self destruction into passionate appreciation of the beauty and grace of our home?

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Despite all the heavy interaction between planets, asteroids and luminaries, between cosmic bodies visible and invisible, this new Moon, embraced and hidden in the light of the Taurus Sun contains the potential for a new way of seeing the world. Love and kindness are always there, waiting for us to notice.

The Moon loves to inhabit Taurus! She is at her highest form of visible manifestation during the year, as she reflects the Sun in Scorpio. Taurus is a sign of value, and this Moon reminds us of our self worth and the knowledge that we too are here to shine in some way. Taurus is the playground of Venus, the planet of love, and wealth. What is value? What is the source of your wealth? What we value is the key to our happiness.

When we turn to the earth and sky for celebration, we dance to the rhythm of Taurus for this constellation celebrates the earth element, and the goddess who animates all earthy life. This is the perfect moment to fully appreciate our bodies, home to our spirits, and to sing songs to our home the earth. Dance under the light of this full Moon. Wherever you are, as she rises at sundown on Thursday night, and even in rain or snow, your body, sacred to her, will provide a pounding heart of gratitude if you listen to her song.

This is the Moon of Ngetal, the Reed. Reed provides homes for many, and music. There is the music of the wind in the reeds and the music that reeds provide as instruments. Reed grows in places where water and earth meet, just as the full Moon in Taurus is a meeting between the earth sign Taurus and the water sign, Scorpio. Ngetal Moon is about direction, and finding the way to our goal. The Reed bows where other may break, but is always a source of new life and action.

The Pleiades are also in Taurus. They mark the garlands on the Bull, and their appearance at sundown marks the season when we honor the Ancestors. For Druids, the rising and setting of the Seven Sisters is a reminder of two important holidays, Beltane and Samhain. Beltane is the celebration when this star cluster sets at sundown. It is the time of fertility and new growth. The Sun dwells in Taurus and smiles upon the earth as we celebrate Mother’s Day, and our mother planet. At Samhain as they rise with Taurus at sundown, we know it is the time of release, and the return to the earth, the mother, the celebration of death. The gates between the daylight world and the Otherworld are open to allow us to come and pass freely between life and death.

Like all full Moons we have this opportunity to integrate and weave opposite seasons and signs with very different impulses. This is what Moon has worked on during the last two weeks since she was embedded with the Sun in Scorpio. We learned about the deep exploration of Scorpio. I recently heard an interview with a therapist (Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk) who has developed a practice and a center devoted to trauma. The necessity to look at our wounds would be the Scorpio part of the healing process, but he has become more and more convinced that the body must be brought into the work he does. Trauma is embedded in the body, and that is where Taurus comes into the picture. Even as we attempt to ‘understand’ our sorrows, we must also learn to trust and reassure our body, and give it room for expression.

Looking at the chart for this particular full Moon in Taurus, we discover Saturn, Venus and the asteroid Pallas Athena are close to the Scorpio Sun. This suggests that work, love, and wisdom function best when we clear away old treasures. The Taurus Moon may resist this work of ruthless transformation. Yet Taurus is the cauldron where the alchemical process of Scorpio takes place. A meeting between Mars and Pluto, which becomes exact on November 10th has the potential for powerful energy release whether in destruction and/or construction of social and financial forms. Mars will then make a square to Uranus on November 12th. The impetus for truth telling with this combination is strong. Fortunately the power of healing represented by Chiron is in this mix (a sextile to the Moon and a trine to the Sun).

As always, I wish you a joyous celebration of this Moon in her full expression, Sarah

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present. To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

At the moment of the Solstice on June 21, the Sun entered the sign of Cancer to begin a new season, and to turn once again to the South. Sun and Moon will meet at 5° Cancer on Friday, June 27. We are all poised at the entrance to a new labyrinth, a new Moon cycle and a new season. Friends in the Southern Hemisphere welcome the Sun back and feel the approach of winter; we in the North bask in the light and warmth of summer days, even as we begin to lose daylight. The labyrinth takes us closer, then farther from our goal of self knowledge.

Across the chart from Sun and Moon in Cancer, Pluto watches the new couple with Capricorn’s ever cautious perspective, and Pluto’s passionate insistence that we pay attention! As we enter the labyrinth, we don’t know what devouring monster might lurk within. The Minotaur, Asterion was at the center of the Cretan labyrinth. He is portrayed as a cruel monster, but he was also once the beloved child of queen Pasiphae! Here he is as a cute little baby Minotaur on her lap. In this light we see him as one of many portraits of a mother and child, symbol of the sign of Cancer.

The story, as it has been told is that Pasiphae fell in love with a white bull, a gift from Poseidon (Neptune) to her husband Minos, king of Crete. She gave birth to Asterion who was later placed in the center of a labyrinth built by Daedelus. Note that in the chart for this new Moon, Neptune is making a close aspect to the Sun and new Moon. Neptune erases our usual boundaries of time and space. At this moment of new beginnings, we look at the ancient roots of the Minotaur story with the understanding that there is no time except the present!

When the spring equinox took place in the sign of Taurus the bull, (5,000 years ago) agriculture and alphabets appeared on the scene, and this may also have been the birth of astrology as we know it The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which developed during this age of Taurus is Aleph, the ox.

The Egyptians built the pyramids and refined the use of papyrus as a writing surface during this period. The Ankh, Egyptian symbol of life has been compared to the cross section of the thoracic vertebra of a bull.

The Age of Taurus seems to have been a cooperative and peaceful period, which ended with the Age of Aries, when war like cultures, e.g. the Mycenean, overthrew matriarchal civilizations like Crete.

This is a period when the Moon goddess was honored in many places. The Moon is delighted to be in the sign of Taurus. Because the horns of the bull are like the crescent moon, there are many connections to horned deities in lunar symbolism. Here is Isis decked out in her crown of full and crescent moons.

But how does all of this ‘bull’ relate to the new Moon in Cancer on Friday? How does the ancient power of the Moon in Taurus and Cancer have any bearing on our lives at this time? The Moon is a symbol of joyful renewal. In Cancer the Moon is at her most powerful. We are given the opportunity to apply the wisdom of her cycle to our lives. Like the High Priestess Tarot card, she offers us the wisdom of the ages. For even though there are powerful and noisy forces at work in the world, and in this chart as well, we are held in a moment of balance and peace, the end and the beginning. Like the High Priestess who represents the Moon, and wears the Moon crown of Isis, we do not have to take sides. For this moment, we do not have to act upon the fiery impulses of the Mars and Uranus opposition or listen to Mercury in Gemini chattering away, or take the stern advice of Saturn in Scorpio. We can stand in a moment of stillness at the entrance to the labyrinth, draw a deep breath and know we are always at home.

Thank you, to my sister Moon celebrant, Eleanor B. Miller who planted the seeds of these lunar ramblings, and has supported and watched over them ever since. May the Moon lady shine her light and reveal her darkness to us all!

Sarah Fuhro

Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present.